About Metastatic Breast Cancer
You may have been living with cancer for a while now. Or your cancer may have gone away and come back. Either way, learning that your breast cancer has spread may change the way you think about your cancer, your treatment, and your life.
When breast cancer spreads
For a small number of women, their breast cancer has already spread (metastasized) by the time they receive their diagnosis. Other women may be receiving treatment, but their breast cancer is not responding to the treatment. And other women may have been in remission for months or years, but then their breast cancer has come back.
Breast cancer spreads when cancer cells break away from the tumor in the breast and spread to other parts of the body. The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes or the tissue near the tumor. This is called locally advanced breast cancer. Cancer that has spread to other parts of the body is called metastatic cancer. Breast cancer may spread to the bones, liver, or lungs.
IXEMPRA® (ixabepilone) as a treatment option
Once your breast cancer has spread, your treatment goals may change to slowing the growth of cancer. Your doctor may consider treating you with IXEMPRA. IXEMPRA is a prescription medicine used to treat
locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer following certain treatments. IXEMPRA can be used alone or with another cancer medicine called Xeloda® (capecitabine).
Important Safety Information about IXEMPRA
Your healthcare provider should do blood tests to check how well your liver is working before
you begin treatment with IXEMPRA and as needed during treatment. If blood tests show
that you have liver problems, do not receive injections of IXEMPRA along with capecitabine.
If you have liver problems, taking these medicines together could increase your chance
of serious infection and death due to a very low white blood cell count (neutropenia).